Call Centres

David Laws: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer 
	(1)  how many call centres were run by his Department and its agencies in (a) 2003–04, (b) 2004–05 and (c) 2005–06 to date; and how many and what proportion of calls (i) were handled by an adviser, (ii) were received but abandoned and (iii) received an engaged tone in each year;
	(2)  when he expects to answer question reference 23294 tabled by the hon. Member for Yeovil.

Dawn Primarolo: I very much regret that I have not been able to let the hon. Gentleman have an earlier reply.
	The number of contact centres operated by HM Revenue and Customs and the two predecessor departments (Inland Revenue and HM Customs and Excise) in each relevant year are shown in the following table:
	
		
			  HM Customs and Excise Inland Revenue HM Revenue and Customs 
		
		
			 2003–04 (as at 5 April 2004) 6 21 None 
			 2004–05 (as at 5 April 2005) 6 22 None 
			 2005–06 (as at 1 March 2006) None None 28 
		
	
	Within the limitations of underlying data systems, HM Revenue and Customs best available estimates of call volumes for each relevant year are shown in the following table:
	
		All figures in millions rounded to nearest 100 thousand
		
			  2003–04 2004–05 2005–06 (to 31 December 2006) 
		
		
			 Calls handled(4) 35.3 48.7 42 
			 Calls received but abandoned(5) 6.1 2.7 3.3 
			 Calls encountering an engaged tone(6) 25.4 31 63 
		
	
	(4) Where the caller spoke to an adviser.
	(5) Where the caller selected an option from the call steering menu and was put in a queue to speak to an adviser but the call was terminated before the caller spoke to an adviser.
	(6) Call attempts where the caller was played an engaged tone.